BLACK BAG : Tuesday 18th March 2025

I saw the M Rated 'BLACK BAG' this week, and this American spy thriller film is Directed, photographed and Edited by Steven Soderbergh, whose prior feature film making credits take in his debut in 1989 with 'Sex, Lies, and Videotape' which he would follow up with numerous others, including 'Out of Sight' in 1998, 'Erin Brockovich' and 'Traffic' both in 2000, 'Ocean's Eleven', 'Ocean's Twelve' and 'Ocean's Thirteen' in 2001, 2004 and 2007 respectively, 'Contagion' in 2011, 'Magic Mike' in 2012, 'Side Effects' in 2013, 'Logan Lucky' in 2017, 'Unsane' in 2018, and 'Presence' most recently released earlier this year. This film was released in the US last week too, has generated universal critical acclaim, and has so far grossed US$15M from a production budget of about US$55M.

Here British intelligence officer George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) is given one week by his superior, Meacham (Gustaf Skarsgard), to investigate the leak of a top-secret software programme code-named Severus. One of five suspects is his wife, Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), also an intelligence officer. He invites the other four suspects, who are also fellow spies, over for dinner on Saturday evening. The four suspects are satellite imagery specialist Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela), her boyfriend Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke), agency psychiatrist Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris) and Zoe's boyfriend Col. James Stokes (Rege-Jean Page). At dinner, George drugs their food, but beforehand tells Kathryn not to eat a certain dish, to lower their inhibitions and reveals that Freddie has been cheating on Clarissa, who upon hearing this revelation promptly impales Freddie's hand with a steak knife to the table.  

The next evening while Meacham enjoys a peaceful Scotch on the balcony of his apartment, he suddenly grabs at his chest and keels over, dead from an apparent heart attack. George becomes suspicious of Kathryn after she denies having seen a certain film, although he found a cinema ticket stub in her bathroom garbage bin. The next day he covertly enters her office, logs into her computer diary and learns she will be traveling to Zurich later in the week, on a 'black bag' mission. He persuades Clarissa to redirect a spy satellite for three minutes and twenty seconds and watches Kathryn meet with a Russian operative in real time in a city square in Zurich, Switzerland. 

Meanwhile, James informs George that Kathryn has access to a Zurich bank account containing GB£7M in misdirected and unexplained funds. In a tense psychiatric session, Zoe asks if Kathryn prioritises her career or her husband. In a subsequent session, Zoe breaks up with James. Upon returning from Zurich late at night, Freddie waits for Kathryn outside their house and informs her that George suspects her. Kathryn says that she needs the night to consider her options and next steps. 

We learn that during the three+ minutes George redirected the satellite to watch Kathryn's meeting in Zurich, another Russian operative disappeared from a Liechtenstein safehouse with a copy of the Severus programme, and is now making his way to Eastern Europe to use it to cause a nuclear meltdown. Kathryn uses Clarissa to track the Russian. She suspects that their boss, Arthur Stieglitz (Pierce Brosnan), deliberately allowed Severus to leak in order to cause a nuclear meltdown in order to disrupt the government, even though it could potentially kill thousands of innocent lives.

She leaks the Russian's location to a CIA contact, resulting in a drone strike on a car in Poland, killing both Russians. George puts all suspects except his wife Kathryn through a polygraph test to determine when they first learned about Severus. In bed that night, the husband and wife compare notes and come to the realisation that they are being set up.

George and Kathryn invite the other four suspects to a second dinner party, at which no food or drink is served, but instead Kathryn places a gun on the table, while George says they will play a game. He reveals several secrets - that Freddie and Zoe had an affair, and that Zoe learned of the Severus programme from James but attempted to stop its dissemination due to her Catholic faith. George states that there were two plots - the first by Stieglitz and James to leak Severus and cause a nuclear meltdown, and the second by Zoe and Freddie to use Kathryn to stop it. James grabs the gun, confesses to plotting with Stieglitz and killing Meacham, and attempts to shoot George, but the gun was loaded with blanks. Kathryn pulls out another gun and shoots and kills James with a bullet to the head. The next day George dumps James' body in a pond, where he goes to fish in peace and quiet, while the others return to work. Kathryn informs Stieglitz that his plot failed and suggests he remove himself from the picture, as she has her eyes on his role. Later that night as Kathryn and George reaffirm their love for each other, they realise that the Zurich bank account containing the GB£7M remains untouched and could potentially still be theirs.

With 'Black Bag' Director Steven Soderbergh has crafted an intelligent, mature and engaging spy thriller that pays tribute to the spy classics of yesteryear. This film has both style and substance, and Writer David Koepp will keep you guessing right up until end, and with on point performances from Blanchett and Fasbender, as well as the other principle cast, this all adds up to a very well paced film that doesn't outstay its welcome at a brisk and concise 93 minute run time. 

'Black Bag' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new at Odeon's this week : Thursday 13th March 2025

Celebrating its eleventh year this year, the Manchester Film Festival (MFF) kick starts on Friday 14th March and runs through until Sunday 23rd March in the northwest city of Manchester, England. The city’s biggest celebration of the best new and independent film, MFF is an annual celebration of storytelling through cinema, uniting film lovers and filmmakers together for ten days of screenings, Q&As, red-carpet glamour, and so much more. 

Those feature films, broken down into UK Narrative Features, International Narrative Features and Documentary Features, of which there are forty-one all up, are here shown with those showcasing their UK and World Premiere screenings :-

* 'Aontas' - from Ireland and Co-Written and Directed by Damian McCann. UK Premiere.

* 'Bang Bang' - from the USA and Co-Produced and Directed by Vincent Grashaw. UK Premiere.

* 'Departures' - from the UK and Written by Lloyd Eyre-Morgan and Co-Produced and Co-Directed by Lloyd Eyre-Morgan and Neil Ely. World Premiere.

* 'The Draw' - from the UK and Directed by Tom Ruddock. UK Premiere.

* 'Foul Evil Deeds' - from the UK and Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Richard Hunter. UK Premiere.

* 'Heads or Fails' - from Belgium and Directed by Lenny Guit and Harpo Guit. UK Premiere.

* 'Hostages' - from the UK and Written and Directed by Jim Owen. UK Premiere.

* 'I Love You Forever' - from the USA and Directed by Cazzie David and Elisa Kalani. UK Premiere.

* 'Kid' - from the UK and Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Ryan J. Smith. World Premiere.

* 'The Line' - from the USA and Directed by Ethan Berger. UK Premiere.

* 'Meta : The Dazzling Girl' - from India and Written and Directed by Prasanth Mambully. World Premiere.

* 'Mistress Dispeller' - from the USA and China and Co-Produced and Directed by Elizabeth Lo. UK Premiere.

* 'My Dead Friend Zoe' - from the USA and Directed by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes. UK Premiere.

* 'Near Miss' - from the UK and Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Jamie Rafn. UK Premiere.

* 'Night Call' - from Belgium and France and Directed by Michiel Blanchart. UK Premiere.

* 'The Penguin Lessons' - from the UK and Directed by Peter Cattaneo. UK Premiere.

* 'Pet Shops Days' - from USA, UK, Italy and Mexico and Directed by Olmo Schnabel. UK Premiere.

* 'Phase' - from the UK and Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Jessica Vogt. World Premiere.

* 'Pot of Gold' - from Pakistan and Co-Written, and Produced by Billy Offland and Directed by Olivier Richomme and Billy Offland. World Premiere.

* 'Silent Notes' - from the USA and Directed by Toni Comas. UK Premiere.

* 'Transamazonia' - from France, Germany, Switzerland, Taiwan and Brazil and Co-Written and Directed by Pia Marais. UK Premiere.

* 'Transplant' - from the USA and Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Jason Park. International Premiere.

* 'Two Big Feet' - from the UK and Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Noah Stratton-Twine. World Premiere.

* 'Y2K' - from the USA and Directed by Kyle Mooney. UK Premiere.

For the full synopsis of these films, plus those others having their Manchester Premiere's, the full line of the short films being showcased, the five films in the Screenplay Competition, and a whole lot more good stuff, you can go to the official website at : https://www.manchesterfilmfestival.com/

This week then we have four new movies coming to a big screen Odeon close to home, kicking off with a spy thriller about a loving couple, but when the wife is suspected of betraying the nation, the husband and intelligence agent, faces the ultimate test, that of loyalty to his marriage or his country. Then we have a historical drama offering about a German theologian and pastor who stood up to the Nazis during the Third Reich. Next up is an Aussie doco about the improbable story of all-time great Hungarian footballer who finds himself in Melbourne in the late 1980's; before closing out the week with an Indian political drama film centering around an Indian diplomat who tries to repatriate an Indian girl from Pakistan, where she was deceived into marrying against her will.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'BLACK BAG' (Rated M) - this American spy thriller film is Directed, photographed and Edited by Steven Soderbergh, whose prior feature film making credits take in his debut in 1989 with 'Sex, Lies, and Videotape' which he would follow up with numerous others, including 'Out of Sight' in 1998, 'Erin Brockovich' and 'Traffic' both in 2000, 'Ocean's Eleven', 'Ocean's Twelve' and 'Ocean's Thirteen' in 2001, 2004 and 2007 respectively, 'Contagion' in 2011, 'Magic Mike' in 2012, 'Side Effects' in 2013, 'Logan Lucky' in 2017, 'Unsane' in 2018, and 'Presence' most recently released earlier this year. This film is released in the US this week too, and it has generated universal critical acclaim so far.

The story here centres on legendary intelligence agents George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) and his beloved wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett). When she is suspected of betraying the nation, George faces the ultimate test – loyalty to his marriage or his country. Also starring Pierce Brosnan, Tom Burke, Noemie Harris, Rege-Jean Page and Marisa Abela. 

'BONHOEFFER : PASTOR, SPY, ASSASSIN' (Rated PG) - is a historical drama thriller film that is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Todd Komarnicki in only his second feature film making outing after 2003's 'Resistance' although he has Written and Produced several other notable Hollywood films since then. Set in 1940's Berlin, this film dramatises the life of German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Jonas Dassler), who stood up to the Nazis during the Third Reich, and as the world teeters on the brink of annihilation, he gets swept into the epicentre of a deadly plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. With his faith and fate at stake, Bonhoeffer must choose between upholding his moral convictions or risking it all to save millions of Jews from genocide. Bonhoeffer was born in 1906, and in 1944 was accused of being involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler, ultimately leading to him being hanged on 9th April 1945 during the collapse of the Nazi regime. The film has generated mixed or average reviews and has attracted controversy for its historical inaccuracies and its changes to known facts. It has so far grossed US$12M from a production budget of US$25M.

'ANGE & THE BOSS : PUSKAS IN AUSTRALIA' (Rated PG) - this Australian sports documentary film is Written and Directed by Cam Fink, Rob Heath, and Tony Wilson, and is also Produced by Tony Wilson, and photographed and Edited by Cam Fink. The film tells the improbable story of all-time great Hungarian footballer Ferenc Puskas finding himself in Melbourne in the late 1980's, coaching the Greek National Soccer League team South Melbourne Hellas. Barely able to speak English and comedically overweight, he united and inspired the team to a dramatic championship win in 1991, while eating, drinking, and enjoying himself along the way. As well as being a sports documentary, it’s also a film about life in Australia, immigrant identity and belonging, gluttonous pasta consumption, and the broken window winder in Ange Postecoglou’s Datsun 200B. 

'THE DIPLOMAT' (Rated MA15+) - is an Indian political thriller film Directed by Shivam Nair and is set against the backdrop of high-stakes diplomacy and follows the real-life story of Indian diplomat and Deputy High Commissioner J.P. Singh (portrayed here by John Abraham, who also Produces here), who embarks on a mission to Pakistan to investigate a critical situation and who tries to repatriate an Indian girl where she was allegedly forced and deceived into marrying against her will. The film is in the Hindi language with English subtitles.

With four new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-